Surprised raid many Rice Mill owners by Vigilance

OB.com

Report by; Badal Pattnaik, Orissabarta

Koraput: Even as paddy procurement for the current kharif season has begun in the district, recent raids revealed that an inter-state rice smuggling racket was behind the non-release of huge quantities of rice from rice mills. At present, Rayagada administration is yet to get around amounting One crore from the mill owners from its 2009-10 paddy procurement.

The district civil supply corporation supply paddy to the mills , who in turn provide rice to the corporation after milling .though the original date for the millers has expired .it had been extended several times. The millers are yet to render rice to the corporation. A team of district officials, led by District Collector, Rayagada Mr.Nnitin Bhanudas Jawle raided at least five mills in the district. While a mill owner has been arrested in this connection, around 2,500 quintals of rice and 5,000 quintals of paddy were seized from the mills during the raid. What surprised these teams the most is that while the stock registers of the mills shows the stock as nil; the mills were filled with paddy and rice bags. The officials said the raids were conducted after allegations of black-marketing and recycling of Rs 2 kg subsidized rice started doing rounds in the districts.